We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Freshman Rylee Conlan attacks the Hawk defense.
Junior Ella Billmayer scores two of her game high 21 points in the win over the Hawks Saturday in Chester.
Eight grader Sarah Billmayer lets a shot fly against Chester-J-I.
The Turner Tornadoes have been knocking on the door of a break through win against the upper eshelon of the District 9C girls top teams all season long.
Saturday they got that win following a 49-42 win over the Chester-Joplin-Inverness Hawks. The girls began the week Thursday by completing the season sweep of the Dodson Coyotes 42-29 as the school celebrated homecoming week.
Thursday the Tornadoes held a 12-9 advantage after eight minutes. Four players contributed to the scoring with junior Rennay Watkins and junior Ella Billmayer each scoring four.
Turner opened things up a bit in the second as they extended their lead to 24-12 doubling up the Coyotes at the break.
Watkins added two more buckets and freshman Raegan Conlan scored four points to fuel the Tornado attack.
The Coyotes pushed back a bit in the third quarter trimming the lead to 31-22.
Freshman Rylee Conlan scored six of Turners seven points in the quarter.
The Tornadoes have become a better team as the game goes on and turned in another solid fourth quarter finishing strong and securing a 42-29 non-conference win to sweep the Coyotes in their season series.
Watkins led the Turner girls offensively with 12 markers in the contest. Raegan Conlan finished with 10 points in the contest, Rylee Conlan added eight for the Tornadoes.
Saturday Turner faced a Chester J-I team they nearly beat a few weeks ago. This time around a strong finish got the job done.
The Hawks crept out to a 12-9 lead entering the second and a 23-18 half time advantage.
Turner was patient in their attack. Freshman Melanie Watkins drained a three point bomb in the opening half and Billmayer and Rennay Watkins each chipped in four points to keep Turner close.
Turner trimmed the Chester J-I lead by three in the third quarter with Rylee Conlan scoring six of the teams 12 points in the Stanza.
Trailing 32-30 entering the fourth Billmayer took control of the contest. The junior scored 14 points the final eight minutes including four of five from the charity stripe to secure the big win.
Billmayer finished the game with 21 points to lead the Tornadoes. Rylee Conlan added 11 in the win.
The win was the first over a top four team in the district since returning to varsity action four years ago.
"We finally got our breakthrough win," commented a happy Jen Baird, head coach of the team. "The girls walked out for the C-J-I game with confidence and determination and it paid off, the bench came up with huge contributions on both ends of the floor. With only two weeks left till tournaments, the girls are really excited and arestaying fired up."
